In Europe, milk output rose to 236 million tonnes, up 1.

6 percent from 2019, mainly due to production

increases in the
European Union, the Russian Federation and Belarus. In the European Union, yield improvements, a
slight increase in
dairy cattle numbers and robust internal and foreign demand were behind the production expansion.
The European
Union COVID-19 livestock assistance programme also helped to stabilise farm-gate prices,
encouraging high milk
deliveries. In the Russian Federation, milk production rose, buoyed by yield improvements in large-
scale dairy farms.
The Russian government initiative to trace and remove products that flout regulatory requirements
from the market
and introduce the obligatory electronic certification “Mercury” system 2 re-established consumer
confidence, lifting
internal demand. In Belarus, farm management improvements, quality feed use and the continued solid
purchases by
the neighbouring countries, mainly the Russian Federation, were crucial in production expansion. By
contrast,
Ukraine’s output declined due to multiple factors, including fast declining cattle herd, increased feed
costs, falling farm
profitability and weak import demand.
In North America, milk output reached nearly 111 million tonnes in 2020, up 2.1 percent from 2019.
In the United
States of America, milk output rose by 2.2 percent to 101 million tonnes, driven by increased dairy
herd numbers and
milk yields. COVID-19 livestock sector assistance helped sustain internal demand and production,
despite pandemicrelated
adverse impacts, especially labour shortages and transport hurdles. Buoyant import demand from Asia
was also
a factor that helped milk production expansion. In Canada, milk output increased slightly, despite a
slowdown in milk
deliveries due to labour constraints and plummeted milk sales in early 2020.